Dental instrument



April 11, 1939. L. G. COBLE DENTAL INSTRUMENT Filed March 10, 1958 Patented Apr. 11, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 5. Claims.

This invention relates to dental apparatus and, particularly, to an appliance for facilitating manipulation of the bite rims which are used by dentists for determining the pattern or configuration of moulds from which dental plates are to be made.

In the making of upper and lower dental plates for a patient, two bodies of plastic material, known as bite rims, are placed in the patients mouth and, by having the patient make a normal bite, impressions are made in said rims, the impressions thus made determining the contour of the mduld from which the plates are subsequently made. The common, present-clay dental practice is to secure the two rims together while in the patients mouth to retain them in proper registry or alinement corresponding to the patients jaw relationship, while and after the bite rims are removed from. the patients mouth. However, removal of the two bite rims, as a unit, is quite inconvenient and the primary object of the present invention is to provide means which will permit removal of the rims separately from the patients mouth.

A further object of the invention is to provide an instrument with which a pair of upper and lower bite rims, removed separately from the patients mouth, can be easily re-associated to accurately represent the relationship of the patients jaws.

Another object is to provide an instrument which in and of itself can be used for determining the proper relationship of a pair of upper and lower bite rims and for securing said rims to gether in their proper relationship.

A still further object is to provide an instrument having a plurality of pin members adapted to penetrate or enter the bite rims, said pins being formed on separable portions or sections of the instrument whereby, by detaching the sections of the instrument from each other, each rim can be removed from the patients mouth independently of the other, with a section of the instrument pinned or secured thereto, after which the instrument sections are re-assembled while still attached to the rims to re-associate the two rims in'their proper relationship corresponding to the jaw relationship of the patient.

With these and other objects in View, the invention consists in details of construction and 00111- binations and arrangements of parts, all as will hereinafter be more fully described, and the novel ieatures thereof particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawing Figure 1 is a perspective View of upper and lower bite rims secured together by the present instrument;

Fig. 2 illustrates, in perspective, the upper and lower bite rims separated, but each carrying or 5 having attached thereto a section of the present instrument;

Fig. 3 is a side elevation, partly broken away, of the present instrument;

Fig. 4 is a transverse sectional view on the line 4--4 of Fig. 3; and

Fig. 5 is a detail plan View of one of the body sections of the instrument.

As indicated, the present appliance or instrument is adapted to be used in securing together a pair of upper and lower bite rims and is also capable of being separated into individual sections, each secured to one of the bite rims, so that the latter can be separated one from the other. The two bite rims secured together by a the present instrument are illustrated in Fig. 1, while in Fig. 2, the two rims are shown separated with a section of the instrument in each rim. Thus the instrument might be generally described as comprising a sectional body portion with means on each section for attaching the same to the bite rims and means for releasably securing the two body sections together.

In the preferred form of appliance, illustrated in the present instance, the so-called body of the instrument is formed of two sections it], H, said two sections jointly having at one side thereof a threaded nipple or stem [2, while at the opposite side, each section is provided with one or more, preferably two, pin members l3. Screwed on the 35 stem I2 is a cylindrical nut i l, the length of the stem l2 and the nut l4 being such that, by threading the nut onto the stem, the two sections" it and it will be secured together in a fixed, definite relationship, as shown, in Fig. 3. 40 For purposes which will hereinafter appear, the body sections Ill and H are formed with mating recesses which constitute a main duct l5 extending axially of the body, and branches l6 terminating adjacent the front face of the body or that face from which the pins l3 project. The main duct I5 is adapted to communicate with a passage or central bore in a comparatively short stem in the reduced portion Ma of the nut l4, and a compressible bulb I1 is adapted to be frictionally secured on the reduced end [4a of the nut.

The pin members 13 should be of sufficient length to firmly secure the instrument to the bite rims when said pins are embedded in the rims, so

that, with the pins embedded in the bite rims and the two sections of the instrument secured together by the nut, the bite rims will be firmly held in position by the instrument. In the use of the present instrument, upper and lower bite rims, illustrated at [8 and I9, are first placed within the mouth of the patient, who will form impressions in the plastic material constituting the rims by biting down upon them in normal fashion. After the impressions have thus been made, and preparatory to removing the rims from the patients mouth, the pin members [3 of the present instrument are heated so as to facilitate their penetrating the rims. When brought to the desired heat, the patients lips will be slightly separated by the dentist and the pins l3, with the tool fully assembled, will be pressed into the rims with the pins of one body section II] in, say, the upper rim, and the pins of the other body section I l in the lower rim. Having thus embedded the pins in the bite rims, a cooling medium, usually water, carried in the bulb H, is then forced through the ducts in the instrument by compressing the bulb, the water or other cooling medium issuing from the outlet ends of the several branches of the main duct against the front faces of the bite rims in proximity to the bases of the several pin members l3. In this way, the pins l3 are chilled and the plastic material surrounding the pins cooled sufficiently to firmly retain the pins I3 in their embedded positions in the rims. After this cooling operation, the nut I4 is backed off the threaded stem portion [2 of the instrument, so that the two sections l0 and H of the tool body are. independent or entirely free of one another. Each of said sections is still, of course, firmly retained in its respective bite rim, but having been separated by removal of the nut I4; the bite rims can then be separately removed from the patients mouth with each rim still carrying its attached section of the instrument. After the two rims have been removed, it is then only necessary to replace the nut M, with or without bulb IT, on the threaded stem l2 of the two sections 10, II. This replacement of the nut re-associates the two sections l0 and II of the body in the positions they occupied at the time the pins were pressed into the bite rims and the pins still being firmly embedded in said rims, the latter are naturally again placed in proper relationship to each other. Thus, the two bite rims are accurately restored to positions corresponding to the jaw relationship of the patient.

As previously stated, it has been the customary practice to secure the two bite rims together, while they are in the mouth of the patient, so that their relative positions will accurately correspond to the jaw relationship of the patient, but with the two bite rims so united, it is extremely difficult and quite inconvenient to remove them,

as a unit, from the patients month while, at the same time, without a tool of the present type, it would be extremely difiicult to restore the two bite rims to their proper relationship if an attempt weremade to remove them separately from the patients mouth. On the other hand with the present appliance, it is. only necessary, as above indicated, to place the pins of the assembled tool in the bite rims; disconnect the body sections of the tool by removing the nut M to permit separate removal of the two bite rims; and, merely by restoring the nut l4, restoration of the bite rims to their proper relative positions is insured.

What I claim is:

1. In an instrument for alining upper and lower bite rims, the combination of a body formed of separable sections, each section having a member adapted to penetrate one of said bite rims, means for releasably securing said sections together, and means for supplying a cooling medium to said rims in proximity to said rim penetrating members.

2. In an instrument for alining upper and lower bite rims, the combination of a sectional body portion, means releasably securing said sections together, pin members projecting from one end of said body portion, and ducts for supplying a cooling medium through said body to points in proximity to the bases of said pin members.

3. In an instrument for alining upper and lower bite rims, the combination of a body portion divided into two sections, each section having pin members projecting from one side thereof, a stem formed jointly on said sections, and means on said stem for releasably securing said sections together said body portion having fluid passages therein terminating adjacent said pin members.

4. In an instrument for alining upper and lower bite rims, a sectional body having a threaded portion, a removable nut on said threaded portion securing said sections together, means on each body section for securing the same to one of said bite rims, and fluid passages extending through said body into proximity to the last-mentioned securing means whereby fluid passing through said passages will be delivered adjacent said securing means.

5. In an instrument for releasably securing upper and lower bite rims together in proper registry with each other, a body having a tubular stem at one side thereof, said body being formed of two sections, pin members on each section for securing the same to one of said rims, said body having fiuid passages extending from said stem to points adjacent said pins, means releasably securing said sections together, and means carried by said stem for forcing a fluid through said stem and the communicating fluid passages.

LUCIAN G. COBLE. 

